Here's the situation...CoAid would like to develop a network of volunteers within India that will act as an early warning system to tell a command center where disaster response supplies need to be…Continue

"Hello -- it's 5 years later and I'm back asking the same question. Our teams are now in Nepal responding to the recent (ongoing!) earthquakes... Has any progress been made on integrating GPS data and SMS?
In my mind, if a solution could be…"

"Hi Terry.
We have been trying to tackle this very problem by first asking people where they are via SMS. It becomes a two stage question with the 'Where' first followed by the 'What'. We are using a mix of GeoNames and the…"

"I've been in Egypt the last weeks and along the tracks through the desert the cell towers are in a line - so no triangulation for location based services is possible! But with my bluetooth GPS device and a peace of software I have triggered to…"

"yes that's helpful George - I agree that this approach could only work with agreement with networks and I understand that the information has to come from them.
I'm talking to the UK provider Virgin mobile at the end of the month and may…"

"That mapamobile I think will only work in the UK because they have agreements with local providers to access the location data. This location data is not relayed, ie only the provider of the sim card that sent the SMS has that info and (depending on…"

"hiya - I may be barking up completely the wrong tree - here goes . . .
the theory I'm working on is that while the location isn't embedded in the sms, by receipt of it you also have the mobile phone number, and it is then possible to…"

"Terry,
I might be missing here so, if I am, please clue me in. But if you can't install on the phones themselves you might not be able to get even the triangulated geolocation since the phone has no way to automatically send it or insert it…"

"Thanks Anthony and everybody
there are two branches of possibilities (I think) - one which depends on being able to install additional functions (API) etc onto GPS enabled phones, and the other (base station triangulation) which doesn't need…"

"I think this would be an invaluabe feature and while it would be technically challenging to put georef info into a plain sms, I can't see why it wouldn't be possible to do as a feature of the java forms client. The location API for J2ME…"

"Hi Terry,
The problem, as Ken said, is that not all phones provide access to the GPS system. If they do, then grabbing the GPS coordinates and pushing them to a SMS message would be simple. Yes, you would have to install the app on all of your…"

Profile Information

Why are you interested in FrontlineSMS? How did you hear about it? (To help us filter out spammers, we need as MUCH detail as possible, else we may not be able to approve your request. If you'd rather not share this information openly please email info@frontlinesms.com before joining)

Interested in using the technology for disaster response.

Tell us about you. (Please also add an image to your profile)

Community Aid Relief and Development is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to the rebuilding of communities affected by war and natural disaster. We assist with disaster relief and sustainable development. Our goal is to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ in practical ways that lift people out of poverty and hardship, and see lasting transformation in their lives.